Saturday, 21 September 2013

What can a man's eyes see in a week? (Part 2)

Livingstone
is located close to Africa's 'Four Corners', where four countries almost meet:

Chobe river, Kasane.

Botswana, Namibia,
Zambia
and Zimbabwe.
Kasane, on the other side of the borders, is one of Botswana’s
most infamous attractions, as it is located on the banks of Chobe River
and next to the infamous Chobe
National Park. The
easiest way to get there from Livingstone is to arrange a private shuttle from
your lodge in Livingstone directly to the lodge of your preference in Kasane.
It even includes a private motor boat trip across the Zambezi river, which is
the natural border between Zambia
and Botswana.
Very easy and convenient. Apparently too easy and convenient for me. And
expensive: 40USD. I took the other option…

23 August
2013

I woke up
early in the morning, bought myself a filter coffee from the bar, brought down
and packed the tent and

On the Zambezi river ferry.

all my stuff (except of all the food supplies I had
bought the previous day from the super market – I left them in a shelf of the
self-catering kitchen of the lodge and only remembered them when I was already
far away from it). Travellers had been telling me that hitchhiking is a quite
common way of getting transported in Botswana,
so I left the lodge, asked the first passer for the way to…the Botswana
borders and followed the direction he told me, bringing up the hitchhiking
thumb while walking. The first lift I got was by a taxi! He drove me, for free
–and was very surprising to me- to the nearby “bus station”, which was just an
open space on the national road, where passengers heading to the borders and
“special taxis” drivers were arranging shared rides of 3-4 passengers per
vehicle. After waiting unsuccessfully, under a burning sun, for almost one hour
and a half for a free lift, I also jumped in a shared ride. If you are good in
burgaining this should not cost more than 50Kwatcha (1euro=7,12kwatch, at the
time).

Chobe river (Botswana)

Tony, who
had left Livingstone, earlier in the morning, for Kasane as well, was
thankfully wrong about the workers of the river ferry being on a strike, so
everything proved to be very easy for me crossing the borders at that morning.
Even the exchange of money, which can be quite problematic when crossing
borders of Africans countries, turned to be like a piece of cake. One of my
co-passengers in that shared taxi, with whom i had a long conversation on the
way, took over, made all necessary arrangements and provided me with fresh Botswana pula,
with a descent rate! On the other side of Zambezi,
I got a dala-dala which drove some 14Km to Thebe lodge, where I would find
Tony, again.

For him
this would be his second time here, this is where he had spent a couple of
nights while his was on his way up to Malawi, almost one month and a half ago.
But this time, he came along with a tent he bought in Livingstone – lodging
prices are literally extremely high in all the touristic hot spots of this
country, with rates going up 50 to 60USD, as minimum in Kasane, for example.
While here in Thebe the cost for the camping site is 60K, per person, per night
with your own tent. Thebe is located right on Chobe’s bank, and while I was
pitching the tent, right before the electric fence, I could see the roars and
see the backs of a big group of hippos, some tens of meters away, floating in
the river.

I was,
already, feeling thrilled.

Kasane, Botswana, Chobe!

This had
been a dream to me for ages.

And now it
was coming true! Another dream of mine coming true.

I’ve got
to get used to that, I guess…

Chobe National Park

Tony had arranged a speed boat safari in the
river, for that afternoon and I joined. Chobe is the natural border between Botswana and
Namimbia and so nobody is allowed to step foot on the many and some of them
spacey islands which are formed in the middle of the wide river. Poaching is
too risky and for some reason there are no predators on the islands. So, guess
what…wildlife is literally thriving. Elephants, African buffalos, hippos,
crocodiles, giraffes, birds and many-many more species are found in massive
populations all around this immense land, which forms the Chobe area. I hope
you’ll get a taste out of the pictures.

Dawn at Chobe

The river
scenery was fantastic, the experience with the wildlife was breathtaking, the
land views were amazing, and that is where a saw one of the most unforgettable
sunrises ever.

Next
morning we arranged with Tony another safari, on a 4-wheel-drive this time, in
the park.

I would
risk saying that Botswana is probably one of the best choices for doing safari,
in the entire continent, due to the diversity and the quite big size of the
populations of wildlife and…the relative costs, which appear to be 3 to 4 times
lower than for instance…Tanzania. We paid 285K (26euro) for the river safari
(3-hours), and we would have paid the same amount for the Game Drive, but we
didn’t do it with Thebe Lodge, because they wouldn’t make a drive with only the
two of us. The stuff in Thebe’s reception were, in general, indifferent in
their best or else…rude. We were kind of warned about it, “if you stay in a
tent, you will the most likely be treated like you are not welcome at all,
because

My home in Thebe Lodge.

you are not giving enough money”, but I still don’t get it – it’s not
me who’s making the rates’ policy, here..! If you also take account of the fact
that they provide absolutely nothing to campers –they denied twice to lend or
even rent a blanket for the night, as we were freezing- and there is no place
to chill (no sofas or even chairs around) and spend some time in the premises
of the lodge,.. I would recommend that backpackers should avoid lodging in
Thebe. Chobe Lodge offers almost the same rates, while providing at least a
descent bar…

On the
other hand, I would happily recommend the freelancer with whom we made the Game Drive, as he
was just quite nice, and we were absolutely satisfied with him and the safari.
That cost 250 instead of 285, but it also included soft drinks and mineral
water. His name is Mr Peace(!) and you can contact him here: www.last_edensafaris.com or here,
+(267) 3201903.

Sunday, 25
of August.

For once
more, Tony left early in the morning and I followed at about nine thirty. I got
out of Thebe on the main road and made the signal for hitchhiking. I arrived to
Maun almost nine hours later, after hitching for fifteen minutes, travelling by
a shuttle for about four hours and a half and hitching again for another four
hours.

‘Old Bridge
Backpackers’ in Maun, during the next seven days, proved to be one of the best
places I have ever been hosted in. There are many reasons why I say this, but
what comes first on my mind is definitely the location. Right on the bank of
Thamalkane, one of Okavango’s numerous canals!
The landscape comes directly out a tale’s pages! The stuff is as friendly as it
can be and I only realized thet this guy, James, is the director of the place
on my last day there. Until then I was sure he is a traveller. I definitely
recommend it (http://www.maun-backpackers.com).

One of
those days we went on a morning mokoro trip in the Delta! The Okavango Delta
(or Okavango Swamp) in Botswana is a large inland delta
formed where the Okavango River reaches a tectonic trough in the
central part of the endorheic basin of the Kalahari.
All the water reaching the Delta is ultimately evaporated
and transpired,
and does not flow into any sea or ocean. This a worldwide unique phenomenon. We
arranged again a day-trip with a local freelancer, who drove us some 20 minutes
away from the lodge and there we got on a mokoro –the traditional wooden canoe-
and we floated through the canals and the mud-islands of Thamalkane for a
couple of hours. Another dream that came true!

Nights are
equally enjoyable with days. There is another member added to the club, Tobia,
half Italian (Florence)
half Belge. He is 22 years old and this is his second time in Africa.
Last summer he was working as a Ranger assistant in a Game Reserve in South Africa.
He is studying biology and he is passionate with wild life. A couple of days
ago he went through a one-month kind of internship with a small English
scientific group, which is making a research on the “Human-Elephant Conflict”,
and is based far north deep inside the swamps of the Delta. Tobia was the first
to cook for us. It was a genuine Carbonara pasta, which, after three months of
eating rice with beans, felt like the best chef’s ever dish. Next night was my
turn and the night after, Tony’s. We were buying supplies from the town (Maun),
cooking in the self-catering kitchen of the lodge and after eating we were
making a circle around the fire –there was a big fire burning every night next
on the rivers’ bank- and chatting until late at night. Our around-the-fire
circle would some nights be fortunately enlarged by Chris and Stephen. Stephen
is super friendly and kind, he is working in the lodge. Chris is German. He
used to work for many years for an international company, as a product manager,
but he quit everything one year and a half ago, he sold his car and is
travelling and working random jobs, in Namibia, Zambia, Botswana since then.
His plan is to travel the entire world, with Mexico being for some reason the
ultimate destination. And when in Mexico, he will pick a spot out of
the places he will have visited by then, where he will go and settle down and
make his own house with his own hands, grow the crops that will feed him and
will be energy-wise self sustained.